About the Microscopy Collection

This collection is a showcase of student and faculty work produced in the Anthropology, Biology, Geology and Physics Departments at St. Lawrence University using confocal, light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Access to this research grade equipment allows students to learn specimen preparation techniques, laser physics, digital image acquisition and analysis.

The concept of a multi-user, Interdisciplinary Microscopy and Imagery Center is intended to create a focal point for microscopy research among St. Lawrence University science departments as well as for the North Country of New York. We seek collaborative research interaction between interested faculty and students. For this reason, we do not charge "user fees" within our facility as long as the use is not for direct commercial productivity.

We would hope that the collaborative interactions lead to the exchange of knowledge and lab skills through seminars and other learning activities. In the case of long term collaborative use, we would encourage and support extramural funding to include financial assistance to the center. Interaction with regional high school science students and faculty is also welcome.

Mindy Pitre, Assistant Professor of anthropology, is a biological anthropologist whose research focuses on how ancient human bone is transformed by microbial growth, and more specifically by biofilms. Although the skeletons examined in her research are more than 5000 years old, Pitre is able to bring to life the microbial inhabitants of the archaeological bone using light and scanning electron microscopy.

Assistant professor of biology Alex Schreiber, a developmental biologist who is fascinated by vertebrate metamorphosis, uses fluorescence and bright-field and dark-field light microscopy to photograph organisms stained with tissue-specific dyes. With digital imaging software, Schreiber brings still images to life by morphing different developmental stages of larvae into one seamless transformation.